1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an energy regenerating mechanism of an automobile for utilizing the kinetic energy of the moving automobile when motive power is not being supplied to the automobile particularly to an energy regenerating mechanism of an electric car capable of increasing the travel distance available from a single charging of the battery.
2. Prior Art
There have been invented various mechanisms for collecting or utilizing the kinetic energy of a moving automobile while the engine idles as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 54-95424 in which the turning of a drive shaft is transmitted to the kinetic energy transmission shaft and is accumulated in elastic springs, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 46-25884 in which the kinetic energy of an automobile is accumulated as compressed air or in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 55-156724 in which the kinetic energy is accumulated by utilizing a distortion of an elastic member. Furthermore, there is disclosed Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 46-41767 for collecting the electric energy.
The conventional various mechanisms for collecting the kinetic energy physically accumulate the kinetic energy of the automobile, and utilize the accumulated energy at the start of the engine. However, these mechanisms are complex and cannot accumulate energy sufficiently. Hence they are difficult to put into practical use.
Particularly, an electric car can run practically for about 150 Km per day, based on a single full charging of its battery. Hence, it takes much time for charging the battery per day since the output of the full charged battery can be consumed in a day. This was one of the obstacles to widely putting electric cars into practice.